Beyond the Galaxy: Samsung Galaxy S10, S10+, S10 Lite rumor review

There shouldn't be any doubt that the next generation of Samsung's flagship lineup is already in the works. Of course, being some of the more anticipated devices of next year, Samsung's Galaxy S10, S10+, and the suggested S10 Lite have been the subject of many rumors, leaks, speculations, and what have you.

Although it might seem quite early, we already have lots of alleged information about next year's Samsung Galaxy flagship wares. Here's everything you need to know right now:

TL;DR Summary

Samsung will most likely announce three different versions of the Galaxy S10.

Affordable Galaxy S10, codename "Beyond 0":

5.8" flat display

Side-positioned fingerprint scanner

Single camera

Single selfie camera

Galaxy S10, codename "Beyond 1":

6.1" curved Infinity display

In-display fingerprint scanner

Single selfie camera

Dual rear cameras (Regular, telephoto)

Galaxy S10+, codename "Beyond 2":

6.44" curved Infinity display

In-display fingerprint scanner

Dual selfie cameras

Triple rear camera (Regular, telephoto, wide-angle)

Design

Safe to say that Samsung kickstarted the currently-reigning fully-glass design that is prevalent on just about any high-tier flagship smartphone and we don't really see the South Korean giant diverging from this design language just yet. Thus, with nothing to base our speculations on, we'd go on as far as to claim that the Galaxy S10 generation of flagship will reiterate the very same all-glass design language that has been prevalent on the Galaxy S8, S8+, S9, S9+, Note 8, and certainly the upcoming Note 9.

Screen-to-body ratio

While initially it was speculated that the Galaxy S9 would greatly improve the screen-to-body ratio over the preceding Galaxy S8, but in the end, this improvement turned out to be a merely 0.1% increase. Thus, we wouldn't be super-hyped about rumors for a truly bezel-less Galaxy S10 -- in the best case scenario, the next Samsung flagship phone will likely introduce a minuscule yet still rather important upgrade in screen-to-body ratio. Believe it or not, the Galaxy S9 is already one of the more bezel-less mainstream devices out there, surpassing the iPhone X and most other representatives of the bezel-busting trend, so there's no doubt that the Galaxy S10 would continue this trend.

Fingerprint scanners

Now, let's talk fingerprint scanners. Rest assured all three versions of the Galaxy S10, the basic one, the regular S10, and the premium S10+ will feature such a biometric sensor, but the approach will be inherently different. The basic, 5.8" Galaxy S10 variation will likely boast a regular fingerprint that could be positioned at the side of the device, over the power button. That's similar to what Sony did with the Xperia Z5 family. Moreover, the rumor mill claims that the 6.1" Galaxy S10 and the 6.44" Galaxy S10+ will feature in-display fingerprint scanners much akin to exotic devices like the Vivo Nex. It seems like 2019 might finally be "it" for the anticipated technology to hit mainstream devices, and what's a better fit for that than Samsung's best-selling S-series.

Water-resistance

Once you go water-resistant, it's oh-so-hard to go back. IP68 water and dust protection will likely make a comeback with the Galaxy S10 as an important, cornerstone feature of the flagship.

Samsung Galaxy S10+

Samsung Galaxy S10+

Display

As we've already revealed, three Galaxy S10 versions are likely to be revealed early next year.

The most affordable one will feature a 5.8" display that will be devoid of a curved screen and will employ a much more traditional and common flat screen. The jury's still out as to whether this one will be a FHD+ or a QHD+ panel, but we are leaning towards a FHD+ panel due to cost-reducing reasons. Aspect ratio is likely to remain 18.5:9 and display technology is to remain Super AMOLED.One thing is for certain - given Samsung's strong track record when it comes to display characteristics, the S10 generation will most likely continue the trend and offer an exemplar experience.

The stepping stone Galaxy S10 with a 6.1" Super AMOLED display that's curved on both sides and has a QHD+ resolution like the current generation of the flagships. As we mentioned earlier, the big news here will most likely be the in-display fingerprint scanner which would be a first for Samsung and a mainstream, global device. Finally, next year's Galaxy S10+ will boast a gigantic, double-curved 6.44" Super AMOLED display with QHD+ resolution, and 18:9 aspect ratio. It will also have that in-display fingerprint scanner that the slightly smaller Galaxy S10 will also feature. Needless to say, this would likely be the key highlight of the handset.

Hardware

As usual, we expect all Galaxy S10 versions to be powered by different chipsets depending on the region they will sell. As as tradition, the US version of any of the upcoming devices will use a Qualcomm chip, whereas Samsung's own Exynos line of chips could be used anywhere else in the world.

In particular, the rumor mill claims the Snapdragon 855 will be the one powering the American variations of the device. While this chipset is still quite secretive, a testbed Sony device powered by it could have been spotted by a Reddit user, revealing some saucy benchmarks that hint at the Snapdragon's smooth moves. As you can see in the screenshot below, the Snapdragon 855 could be capable of hitting 3033 points on the single-core test and 10992 points on the multi-core one. These results are noticeably better than the Geekbench benchmarks of the Snapdragon 845 and nearing Apple's A11 Bionic chipset in terms of productivity, but once again, we'd take them with some salt.

Alleged Snapdragon 855 benchmarks

Meanwhile, the chipset that would likely be found in the international version of the Galaxy S10 is rumored to be the Exynos 9820. The GPU unit on board won't be made by Samsung, though the manufacturer is rumored to be working on its own graphics unit for future use; instead, the Galaxy S10 generation would likely feature an ARM Mali G76 GPU.

Memory-wise, it's safe to predict 6 and 8GB versions for the 6.1" Galaxy S10 and the 6.44" Galaxy S10+, but probably 4 or 6GB of RAM for the affordable 5.8" Galaxy S10.

Storage-wise, 64GB of base storage for all versions is likely a safe bet, as well as 128, 256, and why not 512GB variations of the flagships. MicroSD card support is also highly probable.

Camera

One, two, and three - no matter how many cameras you want, Samsung will aim to cater to your specific needs with the S10 lineup. Moreover, it will also deliver for those who are not convinced that you necessarily need a telephoto camera at the back of your device.

The flat-screen Galaxy S10 wouldn't be very interesting with its single, regular camera, but the second and third versions of the device, the 6.1" Galaxy S10 and the 6.44" Galaxy S10+ will up the ante with two and three cameras, respectively. It's highly probable that the dual-camera setup of the Galaxy S10 will closely follow the technical approach found on the Note 8 and the S9+ -- a regular and a telephoto camera.

Meanwhile, the most interesting setup would likely be found on the gigantic Galaxy S10+ that's to come. It will feature three cameras, most likely a regular, telephoto, and wide-angle ones. Needless to say, this would cover almost all possible scenarios that a regular smartphone user could encounter - a wide-angle lens for those spellbinding nature landscapes, regular camera for... regular stuff, and a telephoto solution for getting closer to the subject and enhancing portrait images with depth-inferred bokeh.

So far, that's all we know about the next Galaxies' cameras.

Price and release date

Price

Price-wise, we can only predict what the Galaxy S10's three variations might cost. Starting with the smallest upcoming device, it would most certainly be the most affordable of the bunch. While it's hard to come up with a pricing given that Samsung has somewhat strayed away from affordable devices, this one would probably cost no more than $600-$650 at launch in order to combat the more affordable alternatives from Apple.

The next tier, the Galaxy S10 with a 6.1" display, would probably start at $749.99 for the base version and go up as you pick up the more spiced up storage versions. Finally, the top-tier Galaxy S10+ will probably start at $849.99 at least and probably cross a $1,000 or morefor its most spec'd up version.

Release date

We are gunning for an early 2019 release date for the smartphone trio. Traditionally, Samsung doesn't announce flagships at the CES trade show in Las Vegas, instead historically opting to showcase its newest flagship wares at a dedicated event a day or two before the Barcelona-held MWC trade show kicks off. This usually happens near the end of February, and there's no reason to believe the Galaxy S10 generation will differ from that trend.

Given that MWC 2019 is to be held at 25-28 February 2019, it's predictable that the S10 generation could be unveiled at 24 February, 2019. This is our educated guess, and give or take a day or two, we are fairly certain that you'll see Samsung next wave of Galaxy S flagship unveiled on that date.

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